I work with adults of all ages on a 1:1 basis and in groups.
I teach an eight week introductory Mindfulness course for school staff and run inset training days and webinars. I also coach adults online and in person using a range of approaches.
I use a number of tools and techniques. I see my role as providing a calm and welcoming space where people can feel safe enough to come into relationship with whatever they are experiencing in a friendly, curious and compassionate way. This is not the usual way that we are with our own experience, especially if what we are experiencing is challenging. We often push away or resist things that we don’t want to feel, or judge what we are feeling as being wrong or bad. Coming into relationship with experience in this way, can feel like a relief. Just accepting and not fighting our reality, is like taking the mask off that we use to face the world and admitting the truth of what we actually feel. Sometimes just doing this is enough to bring clarity and calm. From this place of acceptance, a person can more easily access their own wisdom. Perhaps some fresh insight about the situation arises spontaneously, or the way forward in any situation becomes obvious. This is what is known in Focusing as the ‘moving forward’ energy. It may seem paradoxical, that just by seeing and fully experiencing a stuck place, we can access insights in how to move forward.
You can contact me for a free 15 minute talk to have a chat to find out more about my approach.
“I didn’t know what to expect when I went along to Mary Lou’s sessions. The reasons why I went were stress, too many things to juggle and a feeling that life was rushing by at a break neck speed and I wasn’t even noticing it. To be honest I was hoping it wouldn’t require any effort, any special skills and to my relief it didn’t. Mary Lou is basically as goddess of calm. She gently shifts the focus on the way you look at things and yes, there are exercises to do but you don’t have to worry about doing them right or wrong. There is no wrong with mindfulness just accept it all and move on. Mary Lou’s sessions lasted way longer than the few hours a week, what she says stays in your head and what she does really helps. I would seriously recommend her.”
“With Mary-Lou’s empathic and intuitive guidance, I managed to unpick and turn around a deeply ingrained and very negative belief, which had been formed in childhood. This happened within just one hour. The result: my troubled relationship with a close family member is transformed. I couldn’t recommend MlLou - and The Work - enough.”
J Edwards Author